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Iran Test-Fires Sub-To-Surface Missile

BPSCG

Penultimate Amazing
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Mar 27, 2002
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It's for peaceful purposes, I'm sure.
Iran test fired a new submarine-to-surface missile during war games in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, a show of military might amid a standoff with the West over its nuclear activities. A brief video clip showed the long-range missile, called Thaqeb, or Saturn, exiting the water and hitting a target on the water's surface within less than a mile. The test came as part of large-scale military exercises that began Aug. 19.
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Well, if that sub gets within less than a mile of Hampton Beach, let me know. Until then, I'm not giving up my prime spot on the sands across from Blink's Fry Doe! If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants my chocolate and peanut butter fried dough, he'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands!
 

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That is interesting.

I'm trying to imagine how long their subs will last were an actual conflict with the U.S. erupt. Seconds, I imagine. A few might actually get their missiles launched.
 
Rob Lister said:
That is interesting.

I'm trying to imagine how long their subs will last were an actual conflict with the U.S. erupt. Seconds, I imagine. A few might actually get their missiles launched.
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What makes you thnk they have the U.S. in mind? I'm thinking more along the lines of a prominent non-Muslim entity in their neighborhood.
 
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BPSCG said:
What makes you thnk they have the U.S. in mind? I'm thinking more along the lines of a prominent non-Muslim entity in their neighborhood.
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Well, if it gets that far I'm assuming we're involved. I would hope so, anyway.
 
I heard that subs are all but compromised by satellite systems that were originally made to image undersea topography. They are not necessarily a secretive weapon like in WW II, nor the doomsday machines of the Cold War.

War evolves fast.
 
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Rob Lister said:
Well, if it gets that far I'm assuming we're involved. I would hope so, anyway.
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If it gets that far, I don't think we'd have to get involved, other than vetoing any UN resolution to condemn Israel for its massive and ongoing retaliation.
 
American said:
The source, circa 1995. You are welcome to bother him about it.

I have a strong memory for odd trivia.
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I see no mention of submarines on that site... :confused:

Anyways, I imagine that Iranian subs are pretty noisy and have limited abilities underwater (probably can't stay down very long) so the US Navy can probably track them prety well.
 
...Antiship cruise missiles. More than 40 Third World militaries now possess antiship cruise missiles (ASCMs), which can be launched from the shore, aircraft, ships, or submarines. Although they are not cheap, these missiles have been used to good--and sometimes devastating--effect in recent years. During the 1982 Falklands War, Argentine Exocet missiles inflicted substantial damage on the Royal Navy. In 1987, during the U.S. Navy's escort of reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers in the Persian Gulf in the midst of the Iran-Iraq War, another Exocet fired by Iraq severely damaged the USS Stark, killing 37 of her crew.

Iran has been particularly enamored of these missiles. Recently, the Iranian Navy test-fired an ASCM with a 60-mile range. The commander of U.S. naval forces in the region has expressed concern that, over time, Iran's acquisition of an increasingly capable inventory of ASCMs, when combined with its attack submarines, ballistic missiles, and antiship mines, could make the fleet's job "a lot tougher."

http://www.issues.org/13.1/krepin.htm
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Sounds like a good idea to always take them seriously.

If a sub traveled underneath a large surface vessel like an oil tanker, I don't see how a satellite could ever be completely effective.

(searches about green laser technology are interesting)
 
WildCat said:
Depending on which source I look at, Iran has either 3 or 6 of these Russian-built Kilo-class subs. A threat, but a very manageable one.
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Only if you know where they are all the time.

As to this latest missile launch, they seem to have adapted a surface to air missile to a submarine tube (in a Kilo, that would be 65 cm tubes IIRC) rather than using other surface to surface missiles adapted to torpedo tubes.

Interesting.

Nothing to lose sleep over. We and the Russians have been doing this for about 30 years.

DR
 
Rob Lister said:
That is interesting.

I'm trying to imagine how long their subs will last were an actual conflict with the U.S. erupt. Seconds, I imagine. A few might actually get their missiles launched.
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Operation millennium challenge suggests otherwise. Quite posible that within a fairly short space of time subs will be all that either side have left.
 
American said:
The source, circa 1995. You are welcome to bother him about it.

I have a strong memory for odd trivia.
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Ummm, sorry to burst your bubble, American, but you seem to have linked to a webpage belonging to a paleontology professor in Colorado. Yes, he seems to have a sub-specialty in oceanic paleontology, but I doubt that man made submarines have been around that long.

Maybe he copied REO Speedwagon in his dissertation.

AS
 
WildCat said:
I see no mention of submarines on that site... :confused:

Anyways, I imagine that Iranian subs are pretty noisy and have limited abilities underwater (probably can't stay down very long) so the US Navy can probably track them prety well.
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Wasn't the super-silent US submarine fleet moth-balled?
 
AmateurScientist said:
Ummm, sorry to burst your bubble, American, but you seem to have linked to a webpage belonging to a paleontology professor in Colorado. Yes, he seems to have a sub-specialty in oceanic paleontology, but I doubt that man made submarines have been around that long.
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I claim this professor as the source of what I heard. He is just a man who taught oceanography in the mid-1990s and said something that I retained.

Not a journal or a textbook -- only a man.

If anyone is brave enough to annoy him with questions about accidental-submarine-revealing-geology-charting satellites from a class taught more than 10 years ago, then one may write to him and ask about it.
 
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